‘No Bird Soars Too High if He Soars with His Own Wings’

It was William Blake who said that. And as this week’s Lens Artists Challenge, hosted by Beth is all about Wings, I thought I’d focus on birds.

And they’d better be flying, to illustrate William Blake’s thoughts. Here’s an Arctic Tern. There’s another as the featured photo.

Here’s an egret landing. It caught me unawares, so not the whole of its wings made it into the image.

But most of my shots will feature birds at rest – all the better to demonstrate their plumage. Although here is a cormorant with wings extended. Not flying though.

Here are some of the rest. These images were taken at a demonstration at Thorpe Perrow, and while I know the first one is a ferruginous hawk, I didn’t note the owl names. Can anybody help?

I thought this female mallard deserved a close-up of her wing feathers.

Just as I thought this peacock could afford to show off his wing feathers, and I could for once ignore his splendid tail display.

And finally – a pigeon with slightly OTT wing markings.

Also for Leanne’s Monochrome Madness.

... and I. J. Khanewala’s Bird of the Week – even though I have birds, plural.

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Author: margaret21

I'm retired and live in North Yorkshire, where I walk , write, volunteer and travel as often as I can.

68 thoughts on “‘No Bird Soars Too High if He Soars with His Own Wings’”

      1. They do, but I’d be all for escaping from a grey world unless it’s for the mono challenge. Just hit me over the head with a banana or turn the sound off on me. Shame we can’t do that, isn’t it? xx

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  10. Hard for me to tell what a bird from your part of the world could be based only on monochrome images (insufficient information to rule out possible coincidences).

    I think wordpress just got eaten by another AI, hence all the hits

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  12. I really love the second of your Arctic Tern photos. Reading the comments I see it was taken on the Farne Islands – Inner Farne I’m guessing, which would explain the chapel. I think that one works well in mono, as does the pigeon and the close-up of the mallard wings, but I’m with other commenters in thinking some of these (only some!) might be better in colour.

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    1. Thanks for identifying them, and Gertie and Maisie also seem more suitable monnikers. But Brain seemed so certain it was Julie and Steve. I didn’t know you were an Owl Buff?

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      5. I have a Google phone, so the search facility is permanently showing. Select Google, in the search field you should have a microphone that enables verbal queries, and a Google Lens symbol that allows you to scan anything and receive factual information and/or AI-enhanced information.

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